It is so easy for artists and musicians to wake up one morning and realize that all their work, all their creations, all their dreams, and decades of invention, passion and love have been claimed in the dark of the night, and are quietly being loaded into a moving van.
Brand X loves a good joke, but this is no laughing matter: it’s our life’s labour. A merchant account is using our name our image and our band’s reputation.
Former management duo Scott Weinberger and Norman Bedford are refusing to leave despite their legal obligation to do so. Instead they continue to falsely represent themselves as Brand X on social media, deceiving fans and unsuspecting visitors, presumably counting on the musicians being too poor to sue them in court.
PERCY JONES and ROBIN LUMLEY ARE NOT HAVING IT!
BUT FIRST, A QUICK WORD FROM A FRIEND:
Brand X are Percy Jones, Robin Lumley and the late John Goodsall.
And we have loads of musical friends who played with the band throughout the years…
If these friends are here with us, then who is behind those posts from “Official Brand X” on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, You Tube, and “store”? Who sells merchandise? Who keeps the money for downloads and t-shirts? Is the term “Official” used to mask the absence of transparency and give the unauthorized activity a sense of legitimacy?
The band has one website: you found it! It’s right here.
Not only are we simply done with them, but by contract, our former managers signed a clause that terminates their very short tenure as our managers: we demand for them to close up shop and leave. We don’t want them, and we don’t want them speaking in our name.
After more than a year of watching his band’s name, achievements and his legacy of nearly 50 years of musical history used before his audience by a management company which Percy Jones has severed ties with, he is joined by band mate and co-founder Robin Lumley, in an open letter, a plea, to all the fans and to the music Press.
For many months, Percy Jones and Robin Lumley have sat through hearing about the former manager(s) of the 2016-2019 Brand X reunions shows using Facebook’s “official Brand X” account to push their narrative to our fans, a narrative they never submit to the band, speaking in our name, using the pronoun “we” and evoking “memories” of our life on the road, our work, our performances, from as far back as the 1970s. For their part, our loving fans innocently share with these businessmen, and tell them “we saw you at such and such concert”. There’s no Brand X over at Facebook’s “Official Brand X”, and there isn’t anywhere but here.
Squatter:
(From Merriam-Webster)
noun
: one that squats: such as
a
: one that settles on property without right or title or payment of rent.
b
: one that settles on public land under government regulation with the purpose of acquiring title.
So-called “Official Brand X” accounts on Facebook (and other social media) is operated by people who are contractually mandated (and they signed it!) to leave and return passwords. The only real home to actual members and owners of Brand X is the present website. Right here.
A social media avatar calling itself “Official Brand X” on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram has been using our cultural identity, touting our achievements, while inserting itself at the center of stories, and fantasy narratives about the ghost of our guitarist and friend John Goodsall, and the signs he allegedly sends from beyond, in puddles of water. They are steering 16,000 followers of our band toward their narrative control, and taking the focus away from our first-person history, membership, and ownership of our band and creations: They are not giving the actual surviving members, Percy Jones and Robin Lumley, a chance to speak, let alone control the dialog we have with our fans. These former managers of our band no longer represent us (see below). They are not our band, they do not own our music, our band’s name, our logo, and do not have our joint support, the support of John Goodsall’s next of kin – his daughter – nor our approval to use our creations or our identity. We do not recognize their “official Brand X” status in any sense of the word! They are lingering in our midst and acting as if they own our band, our name, and our musical legacy. They frequently describe events they were not party to and inaccurately characterize our achievements despite having no firsthand experience of memories of our band until sometime in 2016, when they burrowed their way into our band.
And to make matters worse: they don’t even understand our tone, our manner, or what we’re about… It’s literally sickening to read them scrambling so hard to sound like us.
Percy and Robin have got a lot of nerve claiming their own band!
Usurping:
(From Merriam-Webster)
Transitive verb. : to seize and hold (as office, place, or powers) in possession by force or without right the courts may not usurp the powers of the legislature. intransitive verb. : to seize or exercise authority or possession wrongfully. Other Words from usurp.
What's a cuckoo?
(From Quora)
An obnoxious and unapologetic bird that steals the nest of another bird, kills the young, or eats the eggs it finds in it.
Read Brand X co-founder Robin Lumley's plea to Brand X fans, the music press, and Wiki editors (you know what to do!)
Dear loving fans, members of the Press, music lovers, save BRAND X!
I am Robin Lumley of Brand X.
Some managers have been acting as Brand X online for some time and speaking in our name, calling themselves “Official” on social media, including Facebook and Twitter. They have been selling music we wrote and T-shirts but is anyone sending money to the musicians?
I never gave my consent to letting these people carry on with Brand X, after John Goodsall passed away and the contract they signed is expired at the time of his death.
There is only ONE Brand X: Percy Jones, John Goodsall and myself.
I oppose this management, its representation of my work, and I ask you to support me, my family, Percy Jones, and his family, and John Goodsall’s family and next of kin, in our effort to put an end to this charade.
They address you online, but they are not “us” – it is not Brand X (this isn’t too hard to figure out, if you think about it.)
First we hear about a manager who was overheard bragging that his name was entered in Wikipedia under Brand X.
Then this idea that, “It doesn’t matter who’s in the band as long as we have the brand.” Well, it DOES matter. It matters to me, it matters to Percy, and it should matter to you, dear fans.
We have not permitted anyone to reform our band, tell our stories, and sell more music and merchandise using our brand and reputation. Do not let it happen, do not support them, do not encourage them.
Percy and I retired Brand X, our band. My hope is that you will throw your support behind Percy and me. Come to him for information about the future of our band. There’s a film being made about Brand X, which we’ve all worked on, and which we eagerly await; you’ll have a chance to learn all our secrets and it will be an opportunity to say our proper farewell to Brand X.
And now, it is over to you.
Thank you for the wonderful ride and for your kind attention.
Robin Lumley, with love
REALITY CHECK:
at times you kind of wonder if they realize that Brand X is not their band...
Here are 22 KEY FACTS & REMINDERS to our fans, the music Press, and Wiki editors:
- Percy is the boss of Brand X: with John’s passing, his ownership is shared with his remaining co-founders of the band and their next of kin, and John’s next of kin. Robin St John Lumley and Gareth “Percy” Jones. Percy and Robin may not be all ego and swagger, but make no mistake, they don’t suffer fools gladly.
- Some Press accounts in 2020 declared Percy Jones “quit Brand X” when quoting him as saying of the recent reunion that “the experiment didn’t work”. The band is the intellectual property belonging to the people who formed it, or in our case, who acquired its debt. No need to turn this into an IP Law course; suffice it to say that people taking our work is nothing short of an attack on our life’s creations and property. Percy never gave-up of his ownership of Brand X nor was he bought-out: he did not sell or give away the ownership of his third of Brand X and the body of work it represents will be transferred to his next of kin as is the case with John and Robin. Robin and Percy are still very much Brand X, as is the debt very much theirs. Percy sparked a fight when he recommended firing the management, and if you were told that “Percy Jones left the band”, you were lied to… Percy refused to continue to work and perform with these managers because he objected to their practices. Their contract has now expired (see fig.a below).
- Our former management (2016 – 2021) no longer manages Brand X, nor do they act on our behalf.
- Here, on this website, you find ACTUAL members of the band. Members who can tell you stories of ALL our recording sessions and all the classic concerts we played, who created what, who said what, and why, spanning four decades of personal experience, without getting half of it wrong, purposely or not, because of this: we were actually there because we are Brand X.
- Robin & Percy are grateful for the fan pages dedicated to their band on social media. Operative words: “fan pages”.
- Percy’s Facebook account has been blocked from accessing “Official Brand X on Facebook” and from even visiting their page (do you need to read this last sentence again?)
- Since the passing of John Goodsall, Percy, Robin and John’s family remain the sole authority on the band’s future. Throughout the years, Robin Lumley has always had to be consulted on our band’s reconfigurations: Brand X is also his band.
- John Goodsall, was continuously broke, struggled with substance addiction, and frequently depended on handouts for rent and large medical bills in the last year of his life. This placed him in a highly vulnerable position: Percy agonized over his own fight with the managers, knowing that it might further undermine John’s ability to depend on them for touring and other support.
- The social media accounts acting as Brand X on Facebook, etc., have, from the moment John passed away, failed to relinquish control of the social media accounts (as contractually mandated by their own signatures) responsible for publishing a narrative on our band. OUR band.
- That means: not “their band”.
- Performing Brand X compositions on stage doesn’t make someone a member of Brand X. Booking concerts for the band on a US circuit doesn’t make someone part of Brand X. Nor does commenting on 40 years of past history without experience.
- Nor does printing T-shirts whose graphics exploit the 1975 copyright of the Brand X logo without permission.
- Posting on Facebook and misusing pronouns such as “we” doesn’t make someone Brand X.
- Brand X are John Goodsall, Percy Jones and Robin Lumley; no one else.
- Percy & Robin reject “Official Brand X on Facebook”, and in their various forms of mercantile exploitation of the band on social media platforms, speaking and acting AS IF they were the genuine Brand X. (These businessmen registered a company named Brand X Live, LLC, a name nearly identical to our name.)
- If anyone keeps pretending to be our band, or give you jobs, or sell you a bridge, or just merch, they’re not Brand X.
- When you buy from them, Percy has no idea where the money has gone: it didn’t go to any Brand X he knows.
- Percy Jones has not seen a single instance of full and proper accounting. In fact, the absence of accounting going back to the beginning of the 2016 reunion was the main reason for his decision to sever the relationship. During the tours, the lack of accounting on T-shirts and CDs was blamed on the carelessness of their on-site vendor. Last year, Burning Shed apologetically reported to Percy sending upwards of $30,500 in sales of Brand X CDs and Blu-Rays to a US account. Percy had never heard of that money before the email from Burning Shed, and hasn’t heard of it since. He hasn’t seen a penny of it. Anytime you support these social media operators, you hurt Percy Jones, Robin Lumley, and their families as well as John’s.
- John Goodsall has passed away and cannot react. We always took great care to work as a collective and a creative democracy, respectful of each other’s contributions to one another’s ideas, and we always cherished our musical collaborations… and this is why we reject and oppose any presentation of our work and life as a band pitched through a self-serving, Goodsall-centric portrayal of limited and dry one-liners and trivial nonsense, never based in consultations with Percy, Robin, or any of the significant players who have contributed to building our band. We reject representations dismissive of our band’s multifaceted and populated creations over 47 years. Former associates and contributing musicians and producers who accompanied us in the studio through the years have no problem recognizing who Brand X is. Our listeners should be afforded the same chance.
- Brand X is here. This is where the band makes its announcements. Nowhere else. Members of the music Press, take note!
- We’re not going to tell you what to do, but we’re certainly UNFOLLOWING THEM and UNSUPPORTING THEM and casting them out from our band’s aura and perimeter. May they never dirty our towels again!
- Percy and Robin recommend these people take-up arts and crafts, or a pottery class perhaps, and make something of their own if they want recognition. Or, might we suggest: they could try creating and performing their own music under their own name; what a novel idea! But Brand X is not their toy, or their vehicle, or their work, or their legacy. May they keep off our band and our name. They’ve worn out their welcome! Scram!
Our band is all that we have in the world; we’re not letting this happen!
Read more to find out how.
(fig.a)
"Percy had better not try to do anything with Brand X!"
"It doesn't matter WHO's in the band, we have the brand!"
PERCY AND ROBIN ARE NOT HAVING IT; THEY'RE SICK AND TIRED OF THEM.
These former managers, like something stuck to the bottom of our shoe, have used our band’s name on Facebook, used our reputation and identity, all past the expiration date of their signed contract. All the while locking us out.
“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”. Do you think, dear readers, that you’ve been talking to Brand X when you swap your loving recollections about our gigs with those people? Who do you think engages you with patronizing and absurd stories about Goodsall’s ghost appearing in puddles? Please! The musicians who are Brand X are not behind those keyboard: read our bio section and see who the people are that create the music, hold the debt, and the title! You’re being sold T-shits and downloads while we’re locked out of the account.
The management announced they possessed a will written by John Goodsall and notarized just before his death; Brand X has no active contract with these managers; their tenure expired at the death of our guitarist.
To be clear: Robin Lumley and Percy Jones have NEVER bequeathed anything to these people and have NO INTENTION of relinquishing anything to them. Not our music, not our name, nor our work going back half a century. Percy, John, and Robin signed into Brand X in 1975 as a triumvirate and have never shared control of their creation with an external entity, let alone given that creation away. The multitude of players who performed and recorded in our band were not owners of our creation, any more than they owned our name, reputation, or legacy.
If it turns out that they are waiting for Percy and Robin to die so they can act unimpeded, let this stand for the record of our stance: WE ARE BRAND X! These people are NOT and WILL NEVER BE. We reject them and their activities.
If you support and love the band, if you respect Percy and Robin, you cannot also support their actions, and encourage them: please, take a stand.
Brand X doesn’t intend to allow anyone to take our legacy and colonize our band, occupy it with anyone they please, beginning with themselves, or settle into it. Especially people who understand nothing about us, our style, our humour, but most importantly, our music (we’ve had plenty of opportunity to hear that up close, and our ears are still ringing). We reject an occupation, an invasion, and a territorial grab. Sadly, we’ve become acquainted with predatory behaviour over time. And if you know anything about the music business, there are great many precedents for musicians to be taken for easy meat by money guys, cutpurses, dealmakers, agents, middlemen, impresarios, big fat egos, and all the rest. (What a sad time we live in!)
Musicians are often penniless and defenseless in the face of ruthless business practices, just as John Goodsall was much of his life. Just as we are. Percy had been John’s friend through thick and thin for nearly 50 years and has seen it all before. It’s the oldest story in the book and everyone knows it.
Robin and Percy are at an age when this shit isn’t funny. We count on our fans to stand with us and help us put an end to this mummer’s farce. Members of the Press, you love a good scandal: you can help us too.
Now that we’ve put this out: we expect to be slandered, attacked, reviled, accused of defamation… yet every statement we make is an account of the truth, with emails and documents to prove it. But this will not distract from the fact that they are NOT Brand X and have no business taking over our band as they have, and squatting our band.
We see UNFOLLOWING, UNPURCHASING, and CANCELING THESE ENTITIES as a viable option. THEY ARE NOT US, AND THEY DO NOT REPRESENT US. THEY DO NOT REPRESENT OUR BAND.
For the record, the excerpts below show the legal signatures of Norman Bedford and Scott Weinberger conceding to a contractual restriction terminating their tenure as managers, and blocking them from continuing to represent our band, or taking control of it. That restriction contained ONE very specific instance of termination of contract: the death of a member. They are mandated by their own signatures to cease all activities on behalf of Brand X.
Next stop: a potter's field.
When Brand X fans rushed-in to help.
The grave illness of our bandmate John, who was rushed to a hospital in Minnesota with Covid-19, was shrouded in confused public statements that spread online. He may have been helicoptered to the Mayo Clinic while alive, but what happened after his death is far less glamorous:
Many of our music fans anticipated John’s recovery “from pneumonia”. When John died, the nature of his illness and the date of his death were circulated inaccurately. To what end? We did wonder… Some of this data was recently revised, but not before incorrect statements about our guitarist had lingered and spread.
"Don't say anything to Percy!"
The Post Mortem, and the unbelievable and mind-bending two weeks that followed John’s death:
In November of 2021, no more than a week before John’s passing, Percy, who hadn’t been allowed, or able, to get through to John in hospital for over a month, got a hold of his daughter Natasha in California and discovered she hadn’t been made in the least aware of her father’s grave condition. She immediately contacted the Mayo Clinic and had to establish her credentials as his legal next of kin status before she could gather any information.
After John’s passing, the coroner’s office in Rochester Minnesota made the following paperwork (fig.b below) available to John’s family and authorized a stay that allowed Percy Jones to make the necessary arrangements so John’s body, which had been left unclaimed at the Mayo Clinic, could be retrieved and buried. John’s daughter and next of kin, Natasha, had called on Percy to help her after the hospital reached out to her with an ultimatum as time advanced. A generous fan supported crowdfunding effort raised $8,511 (kindly relayed on a few, very helpful Facebook fan pages) nearly helped cover the loan taken to accompany John’s remains from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, all the way to California, so Natasha could bury him. This harrowing adventure, along with disclosures from hospital personnel about the lead up to these events may someday have to be told in their entirety…
Brand X fans saved the day even in a time of great sorrow and bitterness. Reading accounts on social media, one might have no sense of the hardship, pain and grief this caused to John’s family, Natasha, and his former wives Debbie, and Naomi, with whom he remained close all these decades, to say nothing of the pain and grief felt by Percy; for these people, John was a person, a relative, a father, a friend and a musical partner – not just a pawn in a business acquisition scheme. There is no accounting for the lifeline all of you provided at an incredibly tragic and distressing moment.
The former managers weren’t invited to the funeral. These are the facts.
This has been: Percy and Robin are not having it!
Brought to you by the People’s Army of the Sovereign Nation of Brand X. Musicians shall be free!
'Me thinks they doth covet Brand X too much. Far too much.'
NOW WHAT? WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Fans of Brand X, friends of Percy, Robin, John, supporters, members of the Press:
Anything done in the name of our band, without Percy or Robin’s approval is an empty shell. It is not Brand X! Do not encourage anyone acting against our interest, on Facebook or anywhere else. Do not placate them, don’t be a sycophant to them, or be impressed. Do not listen to the spin, the fake Queen’s English; if you love the band and if you want to help Robin and Percy, or if you support John’s family.
TO FAN PAGES DEDICATED TO BRAND X
Brand X is honoured to have fan pages dedicated to the band. Please continue to promote our music, but please, stop promoting the attack on Brand X by placating fraudulent representations of our band, wherever they occur, and by sharing the posts. Please act as if you know right from wrong and stand with us.
And if some facsimile should ever go back out on the road as Brand X, know that we didn’t permit it.
Come to this website for information. Spread the word.
Thank you for your attention. (We’re saving the rest for later; more on this ridiculous mess in a bit…)
WILL BRAND X EVER PLAY LIVE AGAIN?
Percy and Robin are not allowing any management company to operate without their authorization, let alone reform the band. Short of having their agreement to the contrary, the creators and owners of Brand X should be seen as having been robbed, either now, or posthumously if this happen. Robin Lumley and Percy Jones have made their intentions clear: short of having their authorization, no one else besides them should try to step in their shoes or play their music under that name or any other.
For now, the band is officially retired. This is the Brand X domain and website, and none but Percy Jones, Robin Lumley and John’s family can claim authority, and others may not speak falsely as Brand X.
A HISTORY OF THEFT
Percy, John, and Robin have all, over decades, been the targets of people who attempted to kick them out of their own band: sometimes this betrayal came from the very musicians we brought along to play with us. Throughout its history, Brand X has been “the Precious” described in The Lord of the Rings: people have repeatedly lusted after the vehicle, and the band’s reputation, while angling to kick out its musicians, and replace them with generic participants. Is theft considered the highest form of flattery…? Perish the thought: this is contempt for artists, pure and simple. It matters WHO’s in the band. It matters who owns the band!
Members of the music Press, Wiki editors, you know who you are: be sure to check all claims with the us, the real Brand X: where the musicians are located and can answer for themselves. Accept no substitute or treachery.
1968.1.30
Once we're rid of them, we can use this entire page for something more fun.
